This Is the Shirt of the Summer—And Fall, Winter, and Spring

Fashion trends have a life cycle. You know how it goes: One day they’re in, the next day they’re out. But throughout the many highs and lows of the past four years, one item has only gained in popularity: the camp shirt. Introduced on the Spring 2016 menswear runways, the short-sleeve, open-collar shirt has become a cultural phenomenon. Today they are offered at every price point and in every pattern: solid, striped, floral, tie-dye, or artist made. The shirt can telegraph sensitivity (Bode’s vintage lace style), sensuality (Casablanca’s louche silk ones), and even hard-core grooviness (Dries Van Noten’s undulating Verner Panton prints). Its shape is adjacent to a Hawaiian shirt, promising escapism and joy, but can also be quite tailored or serious when worn under a suit. Traditionally a menswear item, the camp shirt has also infiltrated womens wear, with the likes of Gigi Hadid routinely sporting an open camp shirt on the street. So how did a ’50s shirt silhouette beloved by Pablo Picasso become the big thing in fashion?

“We were looking for a niche product that was print based and beach-culture relevant,” says Double Rainbouu cofounder Mikey Nolan. He and his partner, Toby Jones, helped kick-start the trend for camp shirts with the launch of their Aussie brand. “For years we’d had the Montague boys’ shirts in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet as a reference, and then a trip to Bangkok markets drowning in a sea of mostly ugly Hawaiian shirts cemented the idea they were ripe for a refresh.” One year into their business and their shirts were being worn by Justin Bieber. Zaddy Jeff Goldblum rotates between Double Rainbouu’s multi-print shirts and Prada’s spliced styles.

“I was trying to remember when camp shirts weren’t popular,” says Mr. Porter’s style director Olie Arnold. “It’s been a while.” Arnold credits the silhouette’s appeal across age, gender, and personal style to the diversity of options in the market. “We’re seeing it from the luxury brands, like Brunello Cucinelli, through to the more contemporary brands,” he says. “We just picked up a new brand called Endless Joy. It’s made in Bali. All the prints are custom, they’re beautiful and quite mad. The contents of the prints are quite brave, in some cases, but the sell-through has been fantastic. I think that’s a testament as well to how print works on this style of shirt.”

Arnold name-checks Amiri, Off-White, and Rhude as other labels offering interesting iterations of the camp shirt, while also pointing to the easiness of the shape as a selling point. “I think it’s that kind of summer piece that’s really easy: It works with a chino, it works with a jean, it works with shorts. It’s got much more versatility to it, and it’s just more exciting. It sort of brightens your day when you wear something like that.”

Nolan echoes that sentiment. “I think the trend for patterned camp collar shirts will stick around. They’re a cult classic, and they’re associated with good times. People like and need good times!” Now more than ever, right?